“Do you see no value in variety, Dr. Amadiro?”

“If the varieties were equally good, perhaps there would be value, but if some—or most—are inferior, how would that benefit humanity?”

“When do you start this work?”

“When we have the humaniform robots with which to do it. So far there were Fastolfe’s two, of which he destroyed one, leaving Daneel the only specimen.” His eyes strayed briefly to Daneel as he spoke.

“When will you have humaniform robots?”

“That is difficult to say. We have not yet caught up with Dr. Fastolfe.”

“Even though he is one and you are many, Dr. Amadiro?”

Amadiro twitched his shoulders slightly. “You waste your sarcasm, Mr. Baley. Fastolfe was well ahead of us to begin with and, though the Institute has been in embryo for a long time, we have been fully at work for only two years. Besides, it will be necessary for us not only to catch up with Fastolfe but to move ahead of him. Daneel is a good product, but he is only a prototype and is not good enough.”

“In what way must the humaniform robots be improved beyond Daneel’s mark?”

“They must be even more human, obviously. They must exist in both sexes and there must be the equivalent of children. We must have a generational spread if a sufficiently human society is to be built up on the planets.”

“I think I see difficulties, Dr. Amadiro.”

“No doubt. There are many. Which difficulties do you foresee, Mr. Baley?”

“If your produce humaniform robots who are so humaniform they can produce a human society, and if they are produced with a generational spread, in both sexes, how will you be able to distinguish them from human beings?”

“Will that matter?”

“It might. If such robots are too human, they might melt into Auroran society and become part of human family groups and might not be suitable for service as pioneers.”

Amadiro laughed. “That thought clearly entered your head because of Gladia Delmarre’s attachment to Jander. You see, I know something of your interview with that woman from my conversations with Gremionis and with Dr. Vasilia. I remind you that Gladia is from Solaria and her notion of what constitutes a husband is not necessarily Auroran in nature.”

“I was not thinking of her in particular. I was thinking that sex on Aurora is broadly interpreted and that robots as sex partners are tolerated even now, with robots who are—only approximately humaniform. If you really cannot tell a robot from a human being—”

“There’s the question of children. Robots can neither father nor mother children.”

“But that brings up another point. The robots will be long-lived, since the proper building of the society may take centuries.”

“They would, in any case, have to be long-lived if they are to resemble Aurorans.”

“And the children—also long-lived?”

Amadiro did not speak.

Baley said, “These will be artificial robot children and will never grow older—they will not age and mature. Surely this will create an element sufficiently nonhuman to cast the nature of the society into doubt.”

Amadiro sighed. “You are penetrating, Mr. Baley. It is indeed our thought to devise some scheme whereby robots can produce babies who can in some fashion grow and mature—at least long enough to establish the society we want.”

“And then, when human beings arrive, the robots can be restored to more robotic schemes of behavior.”

“Perhaps—if that seems advisable.”

“And this production of babies? Clearly, it would be best if the system used were as close to the human as possible, wouldn’t it?”

“Possibly.”

“Sex, fertilization, birth?”

“Possibly.”

“And, if these robots form a society so human that they cannot be differentiated from human, then, when true human beings arrive, might it not be that the robots would resent the immigrants and try to keep them off? Might the robots not react to Aurorans as you react to Earthpeople?”

“Mr. Baley, the robots would still be bound by the Three Laws.”

“The Three Laws speak of refraining from injuring human beings and of obeying human beings.”

“Exactly.”

“And what if the robots are so close to human beings that they regard themselves as the human beings they should protect and obey? They might, very rightly, place themselves above the immigrants.”

“My good Mr. Baley, why are you so concerned with all these things? They are for the far future. There will be solutions, as we progress in time and as we understand, by observation, what the problems really are.”

“It may be, Dr. Amadiro, that Aurorans may not very much approve what you are planning, once they understand what it is. They may prefer Dr. Fastolfe’s views.”

“Indeed? Fastolfe thinks that if Aurorans cannot settle new planets directly and without the help of robots, then Earthpeople should be encouraged to do so.”

Baley said, “It seems to me that that makes good sense.”

“Because you are an Earthman, my good Baley. I assure you that Aurorans would not find it pleasant to have Earthpeople swarming over the new worlds, building new beehives and forming some sort of Galactic Empire in their trillions and quadrillions and reducing the Spacer worlds to what? To insignificance at best and to extinction at worst.”

“But the alternative to that is worlds of humaniform robots, building quasi-human societies and allowing no true human beings among themselves. There would gradually develop a robotic Galactic Empire, reducing the Spacer worlds to insignificance at best and to extinction at worst. Surely Aurorans would prefer a human Galactic Empire to a robotic one.”

“What makes you so sure of that, Mr. Baley?”

“The form your society takes now makes me sure. I was told, on my way to Aurora, that no distinctions are made between robots and human beings on Aurora, but that is clearly wrong. It may be a wished—for ideal that Aurorans flatter themselves truly exists, but it does not.”

“You’ve been here—what?—less than two days and you can already tell?”

“Yes, Dr. Amadiro. It may be precisely because I’m a stranger that I can see clearly. I am not blinded by custom and ideals. Robots are not permitted to enter Personals and that’s one distinction that is clearly made. It permits human beings to find one place where they can be alone. You and I sit at our ease, while robots remain standing in their niches, as you see”—Baley waved his arm toward Daneel—“which is another distinction. I think that human beings—even Aurorans—will always be eager to make distinctions and to preserve their own humanity.”

“Astonishing, Mr. Baley.”

“Not astonishing at all, Dr. Amadiro. You have lost. Even if you manage to foist your belief that Dr. Fastolfe destroyed Jander upon Aurorans generally, even if you reduce Dr. Fastolfe to political impotence, even if you get the Legislature and the Auroran people to approve your plan of robot settlement, you will only have gained time. As soon as the Aurorans see the implications of your plan, they will turn against you. It might be better, then, if you put an end to your campaign against Dr. Fastolfe and meet with him to work out some compromise whereby the settlement of new worlds by Earthmen can be so arranged as to represent no threat to Aurora or to the Spacer worlds in general.”

“Astonishing, Mr. Baley,” said Amadiro a second time.

“You have no choice,” said Baley flatly.

But Amadiro answered, in a leisurely and amused tone, “When I say your remarks are astonishing, I do not refer to the content of your statements but only to the fact that you make them at all—and that you think they are worth something.”